Ethics as Power: Europe's Role in the Global AI Race
hosted by Professor
Hartmut Mayer
Maximilian Kiener
Head, Institute for Ethics in Technology, Hamburg University of Technology
Artificial intelligence is reshaping global power, not just through faster computation or larger models, but also by embedding rival visions of how societies should function. The United States leads with market-driven innovation; China advances state-aligned AI at continental scale. Europe, meanwhile, risks being caught in between: rich in values, slow to deploy, and uncertain whether ethics is a strategic asset or a handicap. This talk rejects the often heard but false trade-off between innovation and ethics, and argues that, properly understood, ethics can drive innovation in AI and become Europe's key strategic asset.
MAXIMILIAN KIENERMaximilian Kiener is Head of the Institute for Ethics in Technology.
Kiener specialises in moral and legal philosophy, with a particular focus on consent, responsibility, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. In addition to his professorship at TUHH, Kiener is also a Research Associate of the Uehiro Institute at the University of Oxford.
His recent publications include: "Responsibility and the Special Question 'Why?'", with John Hyman, in
Philosophy(forthcoming); "Neural Implants and the TRICK to Autonomy", with Thomas Douglas, in
Ethics in Practice (6th ed.), edited by Hugh LaFollette, Wiley Blackwell (2025); "AI and Responsibility: no Gap, but Abundance", in the
Journal of Applied Philosophy (2025); "Strict Moral Answerability", in
Ethics (2024); "Cyber-Risks and Medical Ethics", in
AI Morality, edited by David Edmonds, Oxford University Press (2024). Kiener is also editor of
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Responsibility, Routledge: London/New York (2024).
